This is a class for an up-coming mini-setting I will be publishing. Thought I’d share.

Time Chronicler Class

“Behold the clock face of the Time Queen; she who is alive and dead, born yet unborn; she who always is, and yet never existed! I shall study, discover, and try to understand- all for her!”

Time Chroniclers hail from the Realm of Time and are obsessed with recording events that have come to pass, yet to pass, and ones that have passed and can be changed. Time Chroniclers adventure to discover new histories, temporal distortions, alternate timelines, and search for spells and books with magical properties dealing with time.

Time Chroniclers are enigmatic and view the passage of time and its strange effects in a bemused, calculating way.

Weapons, attacks, and saves as thief/rogue and wear up to leather armor.

Improved Initiative: A Time Chronicler receives +4 to their initiative score. If using group initiative (IE. 1d6 per side) roll 2d6 and take the higher of the two when a Time Chronicler is in the party.

Read Scroll– The Time Chronicler is able to read magical scrolls as the thief/rogue class of equal level.

Time Chronicler Powers:

The Time Chronicler is able to use powers that bend the will of time. A Time Chronicler can use any of these 8 powers, but only a limited number of times per day (see below).

Level- x/day

1st-2nd– 1; 3rd-4th– 2; 5th-6th– 3; 7th-8th– 4; 9th+– 5

Aging Touch: Able to touch a target and age them for 2d6 years if they fail a Constitution-based save. Target suffers -2 to all rolls for 24 hours due to the shock. Alternatively a Time Chronicler is able to cause a flux within themselves, rejuvenating their body, becoming 3d6 years younger. Doing so is taxing; a Time Chronicler is unable to use any of their abilities for 1 month after rejuvenating.

Glimpse of the Future: The Time Chronicle is able to see an event that will affect them in the near future (no more than 24 hours) and are able to alter the event. Mechanically this means what when a Time Chronicler fails a roll, they can declare this is the event they “knew” about and automatically succeed.

Haste: A Time Chronicler causes the touched target (including self) to become quickened and move faster. A hastened target moves 10’ faster and gains a second action per round.

Slow: A Time Chronicler touches a target (Wisdom-based save to negate) causing them to become slow. The target’s movement speed is reduced by 10’ and they are only able to take either a movement action or attack action and no free actions.

Negate Wound: The Time Chronicler is able to reach through the veils of time and erase damage that has injured them, healing 1d6/level damage. Alternatively a Time Chronicler is able to reach through the veils of time and erase the effects of a poison, disease, or curse that is affecting them. Removing an affliction is taxing. Canceling poisons results in the Time Chronicler being unable to use any of their abilities for two days. Canceling diseases results in the Time Chronicler being unable to use any of their abilities for one week. Canceling curses results in the Time Chronicler being unable to use any of their abilities for one month.

Temporal Jaunt: The Time Chronicler speeds themselves up so they flash in and out of time, appear in another location 10’/level.

Temporal Flux: The Time Chronicler causes their body to exist in a state of several times, making them harder to hit. Increase their armor by +4 for 1 hour.

Stop Time: The Time Chronicler is able to touch a target and freeze them in time for 1 round/level. The target is considered helpless and can be killed, etc. Once the duration has ended the target resumes normal time as though nothing had happened. The target is allowed a Wisdom-based save to avoid the effect.

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Time Domain for Cleric

Clerics who follow the Church of Time and adhere to the teachings of the Time Bishop are able to wield a few extra abilities.

Haste: A cleric can become quickened and move faster. A hastened cleric moves 10’ faster and gains a second action per round.

Temporal Initiative (3x/day): A cleric can touch a target (including self) and either speed their initiative order up to being first or slow them down to being last (lasts whole combat, no rerolling initiative). Targets are allowed a Wisdom-based save to negate.

I am nearly done with my first draft of my White Star source book (yay), and figured I’d throw up another table that will be in the book: the Space Station Generator.

Space Station Generator

Resort Station

Need to roll up a space station, simply roll d4, d6, d8, d10, d10(%), d12, a d20. This will give you a working space station in a few moments. Once you have generated the station, you just need to create a name for it.

D4- Population

Sparse- 100+1d100 inhabitants (2d20+10 guests at any time)

Decent- 200+1d100 inhabitants (3d20+30 guests at any time)

Lively- 1,000+1d1000 inhabitants (2d100+100 guests at any time)

Dense- 3,000+1d1000 inhabitants (5d100+200 guests at any time)

Salvage Outpost

D6- Interesting Feature Near Station

Planet- 1) inhabited; 2) uninhabited; 3) destroyed

Asteroid belt

Remains of ships- space battle from long ago

Strange space creatures

Fleet of ships

Nebula

D8- Station Problems

Power fluctuations

Enemy ships in area

Solar flares

Computers fail

Strange rodent creatures over-breeding

Strange debilitating sickness spreads throughout station

Part of station destroyed

Shortage of needed supplies

D10- Underground Interest

Station is great meeting location for various parties

Guards are on take- allow storage of illegal contraband

Hidden laboratory that makes highly addictive drug

Nobles/aristocrats on station are crime family

Local bar is highly active fencer and connection

Slave trades have arrangements to use an occupied cargo bay for deliveries and transactions

Last night we began playtesting my High Noon rules, inspired and compatible with (mostly) the kickass White Star rules. My group made their characters.

All in all it took 4o minutes to make characters- this was because I didn’t have print outs, etc (my printer is fucked), so I had a single iPad that I passed around so people could write down their starting gear.

As I went to the players and pointed out their starting gear, I told the ones that started with a horse to ignore that- they don’t need it. One of the players decided to barb me, “Fuck you! This says I get a horse… Your rules say I get a horse, I’m taking the horse!” Several other players thought it was a good time to join in and give me shit, “Yeah! I get a horse too… we ALL should get horses, this is the Old West!” I said fine- you all get your fucking horses… (more on this later).

Setting

I do not include a weird west setting in High Noon- I give tool for quick ideas, but also figure people may use High Noon to play in Deadlands, Sixthgun, fuck- even East to West (really use my book and White Star together). So I gave my wife the choice of which setting we’d play in- Deadlands, Malifaux, or Cold Steel Reign. Gave her the elevator pitch of each and it was between Deadlands and Malifaux (Cold Steel Reign is written by an old friend of ours but it’s extremely dark- very dark ages meets the Old West)… So we BS’d the pros and cons of each (I love my woman) and we decided on Deadlands- then she turns to me and says, “Why don’t you write your own setting and publish it later?” Well fuck… so NOW I’m researching and writing notes for that…

Anyways- I digress

The Players

Here’s the cast-

A grumpy, pushy shaman (Angie)
A “I’m an evil warlock” sorcerer (Chad)
A Showman who is trained in the etiquette of the West, motherfuckers! (Amelia)- I haven’t put this Weird class on the blog
A pugilist that has fists of fury (Nate)
A scout that can move silently, has a badass rifle, and knows nature and shit (Tyler)
And a gunslinger who’s quick on the draw (Kevin)

For HP I’m using my second method- roll 1d6+1 add your Con Score and Con Modifier- that’s your starting HP (unless your a fighting class- roll 2d4+1 instead of 1d6). Everyone started off with around 13-19 HP… Then I lowered the boom on them. When they gain a level- they only gain +1 HP per level… that’s it. I designed this so a shotgun to the face will hurt you regardless of level.

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Heading to Spring Water

The group is heading to the desert town of Spring Water in the New Mexico territory. There are rumors of strange goings on in the town; a green fog that was turning people inside out and drove them to kill their fellow villagers… The Church of Divine Providence had it on their bounty board and the group took it. They each got paid $2o up front and the rest after they fix the problems and report to the Spring Water Church priest.

So they wandered through the desert for eight days, encountering no problems. With the view of Spring Water in the horizon all was smooth sailing. Until… the ground collapsed under them. Eventually they come to in an abandoned mine, battered and bruised, and dead horses all around them- yeah, fuck those whiny bitches- I killed their horses- I told them they didn’t need them;).

The group dusted themselves off- Angie the shaman butchered one of the horses (she said it was spite butchering for the killing of her horse) and took some raw horse meat, and they began delving into the mine.

First floor of the mine

The first floor went pretty smoothly- they got in marching order and meandered into the second room and got ambushed by the spiders. I rolled for shit for both of them and the group killed them quickly- Angie putting an arrow into the eye of one and Tyler rifling another one.

The third room the group was looking around and about to head through the exit to the top floor (with a spider above it, lying in wait in the darkness). Tyler- cutting his chops on Red Box (and haven’t played any of the editions above 1e- come to think of it, I don’t think he’s played in about 20 years…) said I really look around the room. Yes! I described the room in more detail and the how at the entrance had webbing on the rock-face, starting light at the bottom, but getting thicker at the top. Now they knew a spider was up there. They threw rocks to lure it down. It crawled down and jumped at Nate, missing. Chad successfully casting Flaming Hands on it. The spider turned tail and ran down the tunnel, but Tyler rolled a natural 20- blasting the things abdomen to bits. The spider, parts of its body still alight, like the slowly dying embers of a fire, slid into the darkness.

Aside: This is why I love old school RPGage. The group was engaged and asked for details in the room. With 3.x and Pathfinder- too often the players would get into a room and do the what does my Notice roll tell me. Much more engaging to have them actually ask for details- only if shit is hidden should there even need to be a roll- and even then if the players say they are looking closely (or long enough) a roll probably isn’t needed.

The Second Floor

Top floor of the mine

The second floor the group encountered the rats eating the corpse of an insideout man- the first sign/evidence that indeed shit was fucked up in the town of Spring Water. The group used rocks to scare off the giant rats (they failed their morale roll).

In the room to the north the group encountered the slaughtered settlers and four inside out men. All four ran at the characters. Kevin and Amelia took 6 damage each, and Angie had two on her, resulting in 3 damage (one missed). Kevin won initiative and shot is heavy pistol- he killed the one on him, turned his pistol on one on Angie and gunned it down with Fast Shootin’ (think Fighter’s cleave ability), gunned one down on her and then shot the other one (Heavy Pistol has a RoF of 2), but missed. Amelia used her cutlass and killed the one attacking her and Tyler used his knife to gut the last one on Angie.

Combat was quick and now the group was worried because two of them took substantial damage.

They cleared the rest of the rooms, eventually coming to the Foreman’s Office, looted the safe and Amelia read the newspaper, dated three years ago: “Spring Water mine to close due to lack of ore. Variss Industries to found new mine and processing plant soon” The group found this interesting as they had found plenty of evidence that there was still ore in the walls AND that they had started digging four new tunnels.

The group went out the mine entrance, paused to see the carnage of the dead settlers and wagon.

Tyler- Is there a horse?

Me- Yup!

Tyler- Is it alive?

Me- *I held up a d6*- Even or odd?

Tyler- Odd

Me- *rolls a 2* It’s dead.

Tyler- *laughs*- You’re a dick. I’m gonna get me a fucking horse!

Then, saying fuck it to burying the dead- the group finished the walk to Spring Water.

Spring Water

The group arrived in the town, saw the sign for the Three-Legged Dog Saloon and Inn, and decided to take their blood, filthy hides there to get whisky and a bath. Leaning against the wall of the saloon was a woman in brown leather duster and a black cowboy hat. She lit a cigar and looked at the group, revealing she wore an eye patch.

Sheriff Janey “One-Eye” Hooper

Janey- Well… ain’t you cusses a dirty sight on the eye…

The group paused and looked at her as she took a deep drag of her cigar. The she moved her duster lapel and flashed her Sheriff’s badge.

Janey- Who the hell are you and what brings you to my town?

To be Continued

This was a great session. We left off here (an hourish) early because I could tell several of the players were tired (myself included). The next session will be in the first week of December

Spring Water Map

So I used the Vornheim die drop generator to create Spring Water. Then I delved into some of my old blog posts and used my Instatown idea to flush out the buildings.

Recently I posted pondering running an Into the Oddcampaign for my group… One of my players asked if it was human-centric or if they could play a different race… and I figured why the fuck not…? So I sat down this AM to create a few races to see if I could keep it in line with Into the Odd and keep it light…

So first I did the traditional

Dwarf

Hearty– There is a 25% chance that an attack that would drop you to 0 HP (or more) actually leaves you at 1 HP (thanks for inspiration Goblin Punch!).

Constitution– You are immune to most poisons. Magical poisons are at the decision of the GM.

Underground Knowledge– You always know your direction underground.

Elf

Fae-blooded– Immune to sleep or enchantment effects from Arcanum.

Fae-powered– When using Arcanum that requires a Will save to activate, roll 2d20 and take the better result.

Sleepless– Elves do not sleep, but enter a dream-like state for 4 hours.

Halfling

Luck– If a Luck roll doesn’t favor you, reroll- but you must take the second result.

Small Stature- Creatures that are 7’ or taller have a hard time hitting a Halfling. All physical attacks are treated as Impaired.

Sneaky– If a Halfling needs to make a Dex save to be sneaky they roll 2d20 and take the better result.

Then I went further out…

Clockwork Man

Construct– You don’t need to eat, drink, or breathe and are immune to poisons and diseases.

Reincarnation- When killed- reincarnated 1d6 days later in a new body. Only vague memories of past lives exist.

Past Lives– For a piece of information that you may possess from a past life, make a Luck roll. If it favors you, you recall the information/memory.

Finally I Into the Odded a few of my Hubris races

Murder Machine

Construct– You don’t need to sleep, eat, drink, or breathe and are immune to poisons and diseases.

Metal Body– You have armor of 2 against all damage. Your body is so heavy that you cannot swim, but sink to the bottom and must walk along the sea floor.

Punch Them in the Face: A murder machine’s fist is hard metal and wood and does 1d6 damage.

Swiss-Army Hand– A murder machine is built to kill, and as such is outfitted with a hand that can rotate and become one of three weapons. At chargen choose three weapons from the following list: hand crossbow (d6), dagger (d6), flail (d4), hand axe(d6), mace (d8), rapier (d8), or wheellockpistol (d8).

Hunted– The Black Queen wants her rogue Murder Machines back). The Black Guard always shows up at the most inopportune time.

Avarian

Luck– If a Luck roll doesn’t favor you, reroll- but you must take the second result.

Mocking Bird– An avarian is able to mimic the voice or sound of any creature that they have heard in the past (GM has final say). Sneaky avarians use this ability to lure a mark into a dark alley, or to distract a guard. Target must make a Will save to disbelieve.

Magpie– Avarians collect things that others find useless or mundane; it’s a compulsion. An avarian can make a Luck roll to see if they have some “useful” mundane item hiding in their pockets. The item could be a hairpin, a few coins, a shiny button, an ancient skeleton key, etc. The idea should be fun and clever to the situation. The GM has final arbitration.

Transformation: Once a day an avarian is able to transform into a human form (this human form shows all scars, corruption, and deformities that the avarian has obtained through their rough and tumble journey). This transformation is truly horrible to witness as bones jut out and pus, strange clear liquids and blood spew forth from the body. The avarian stays in this transformed form as long as they desire. Transforming or reverting back to their original form takes 1 turn.

Ekrask

Natural Weapons: An ekrask has a nasty bite attack that deals 1d4 damage, and razor sharp claws that deal 1d6 damage. An ekrask is never considered unarmed.

Blood Spout: Once per day an ekrask can shoot blood out of its eyes. The target must make Str save or be stunned for 1d4 turns. The smell of the blood makes target easier to track by scent (granting a +2 bonus to Will checks to track target- if roll is needed).

Rage: Once per day an ekrask is able to tap into their ferocious nature and attack with reckless abandon. When raging an ekrask’s melee damage is considered Enhanced, however all damage against them is likewise Enhanced. A raging ekrask is immune to fear and mind-altering effects and is considered to have an armor of 2 for the duration. The rage lasts 2d4 turns.

What About Humans…?

For humans I would let them choose from my house rule abilities, and MAYBE all humans start with the full 6 HP at 1st level.